Alba sits in Piedmont’s Langhe, a region known for its white truffles and vineyard hills. Nearby Barolo and Barbaresco give the landscape its famous wines; hazelnuts are part of its food culture, too. After the Second World War, when cocoa was scarce, Pietro Ferrero used local hazelnuts in his family’s pastry shop to stretch a chocolate recipe into a sweet paste. Giandujot evolved into Supercrema, then Nutella, introduced by his son Michele in 1964. LEIƏR draws on the town’s café and confectionery culture for ALBA, the first fragrance in its place-inspired PASSPORT collection, bringing coffee, hazelnut, milk and praline together.

On first spray, almond and hazelnut arrive with a flicker of clove; praline sits softly inside a beautifully roasted warmth. Coffee and milk come forward, with vanilla smoothing the edges. The opening feels clear and polished. The sweetness stays poised on my skin, never sticky or dense, while firewood and spiced rum give the creamy center a darker outline.

I wore ALBA last night and kept catching little wafts of it today. The roasted coffee remained distinct, with cacao and toasted wood warming the drydown. Its longevity has impressed me. I am less certain about sillage; I know it kept lifting off my skin, though I cannot judge how far it reached beyond me. LEIƏR calls ALBA “a darker side of gourmand.” On me, roast, clove and firewood give it that darker edge, while milk and vanilla keep the texture smooth. It feels grown up, polished and surprisingly airy for a gourmand.

The smoked-glass bottle is pretty, with its rounded body and black cap, and the 50 mL size feels just right in the hand. I am usually drawn to the airy elegance of Chanel Les Exclusifs and Hermès, and I am selective about gourmands. ALBA has the polish I look for, with a warmer, more indulgent texture. I love wearing it.

LEIƏR’s founder, Bria Bryant, is a Black woman entrepreneur, Spelman graduate and master cosmetologist. She began her career styling hair, makeup and fashion, then moved into public relations and senior roles at MSL, Havas and Assembly. Her experience is visible in the house’s approach to wearing fragrance: the first collection, RISE, RESIST, REBEL and REIGN, can be worn alone or layered, and she has extended that thinking into perfumed hair serums.

When she was four, Bryant mixed her mother’s Halston perfume with baby powder and water, trying to make a scent of her own. She has recalled the experiment as the beginning of her interest in fragrance. It is a charming image, and it makes sense beside a house built around personal combinations: Bryant’s first collection invites layering, while PASSPORT gives her a way to work with places.

ALBA was composed by Alexandra Monet. Her credits include The Different Company’s leather-and-tuberose Adjatay, Lalique’s café-latte and almond Soleil, and dsm-firmenich’s peach-textured Peach Fuzz, co-created with Steve Guo. In ALBA, she builds the pleasure of coffee, milk and hazelnut with careful proportion. The coffee stays distinct beneath the cream; hazelnut reads toasted, and the woods keep the praline from taking over.

I am often skeptical when an independent perfume house works with one of the giant fragrance-and-flavor suppliers. As a reader and wearer, I want to know who shaped the formula and what the supplier’s research brings to the perfume. LEIƏR names two contributions here: Coffee Santos SFE and Smell-The-Taste. Coffee Santos SFE is an Arabica extract from Brazil’s Sul de Minas, made using supercritical carbon dioxide. SFE is an established extraction method; the particular coffee material gives Monet a roasted note to shape.

Smell-The-Taste is dsm-firmenich’s sensory approach to translating taste into fragrance. Flavorists and perfumers consider how taste and aroma combine, including the retronasal aromas we sense as we eat and drink, then use that knowledge to build fragrance effects. In ALBA, it shapes hazelnut richness and the creamy impression of milk. I can smell the effect in the coffee’s roasted dimension, the velvety milk and the hazelnut accord that evokes Alba. The Coffee Santos profile identifies the extract and its Brazilian origin.

I expect ALBA to turn up across fragrance feeds once more people get their hands on it. I am still catching its warm trail today, and already want to wear it again tomorrow.

Elevated Classics Classification
House: Independent, Black woman-founded · Founded: 2024 by Bria Bryant
Perfumer: Alexandra Monet · Style: Coffee gourmand
Technology: dsm-firmenich Smell-The-Taste™ and Coffee Santos SFE